This is the ultimate Nightclub Money Guide (summarized Video) for running the nightclub business in GTA Online, updated to 2022, and explained in a simple way along with some helpful tips and tricks that even veteran players may not be aware of.
Nightclubs were released in GTA Online as part of the After Hours DLC back in July 2018. And 4 years later the payouts for Nightclub business activities were increased in 2022 after the Expanded and Enhanced version of the GTAV/O was released on the Next generation of consoles.
This updated Nightclub Money Guide for GTA Online will provide a very simple step-by-step procedure to allow players to make the best use of it and make millions in the process.
The idea behind Nightclub was to allow players to make passive income that is solo friendly. Earlier iterations of passive money-making in GTA Online like Biker Businesses and Gunrunning Bunkers weren't as Solo friendly, and Nightclub gave that option to players.
Is Nightclub a Good Starting Business?
Contrary to popular belief, Yes. Due to the updates released in March/April 2022, the money-making meta of passive income in GTA Online has changed a lot more than anticipated.
Believe it or not, making passive income from simply changing DJs once every 2 in-game days is more profitable (per hour) than selling your Nightclub Warehouse for approximately 1 million every 20 real-life hours (or 25 in-game days), which also involves:
- Selling your product in a public session (even if it is a solo public lobby) takes 2 to 10 minutes depending on the mission and location.
- Buying and keeping other businesses online (no supplies/production required but they cannot be shut down)
- Incurring some daily fees for your businesses depending on whether or not you decide to register as CEO or Motorcycle Club President for other activities.
This does NOT mean that Nightclub Warehouse's passive income is bad. It is actually better than it was before as each of the Biker businesses received an increase of 35% in sale values for the Nightclub warehouse. However, new players can buy a Nightclub and still make good money without owning other businesses.
In a nutshell, Yes, Nightclub is one of the best (if not the best) "starting" businesses in the game. This is because non-warehouse activities can be conducted in private sessions and almost no initial capital investment is required.
Step 1: Buying Nightclub & Choosing Location
So if you are a new player who is just starting out or you are short on cash and don't own a lot of the businesses, I would recommend buying the stock Nightclub and buy only the Staff upgrade after you complete its setup (Ignore Equipment and Security upgrades for now. They are explained later in the guide).
You can renovate your Nightclub later and buy other upgrades at a later time as well so no need to rush yourself with upgrades.
As for the location, most Nightclubs are pretty decent. I would recommend avoiding LSIA, Elysian Island, and Cypress Flats as they are at the very bottom and only some missions take place within the city and those too near the southern part of Los Santos.
And since you will be selling in a Public session, you want minimum travel time from the Nightclub to your delivery location to avoid other players coming after you. Two Nightclubs in Vinewood (West Vinewood and Downtown Vinewood) have very good locations as per different drop-off locations if you are willing to spend a little extra.
If you own an Arcade with MCT (Master Control Terminal) then try to get a Nightclub near it as you can launch the sell mission from there as well and quickly get inside the sell mission vehicle.
NOTE: Until your organization or club enters the Mission Sell Vehicles, the global timer doesn't start and the vehicle itself is invincible. So they are safe from griefing till that point.
Step 2: Setting Up & Buying Upgrades
After you buy and visit the Nightclub, you will be required to complete 3 setup missions, before you can start making money:
- Staff
- Equipment
- Resident DJ
You can check out the complete Video Walkthrough of setting up the Nightclub for reference.
Once all missions are completed, your nightclub will be fully operational and interactive. There are 3 more Resident DJs that can be acquired, but each costs $100k for the first time and you will receive instant maximum (100%) popularity.
You can later change them for $10k and receive a 10% increase in popularity. So if you have limited funds, you can just get one more DJ and swap between those two. This is explained in the next section.
- If you do not own any businesses, then ONLY buy the "Staff" Upgrade for your Nightclub under the "Upgrades" Tab.
- If you do plan to use your businesses, then make sure to buy the "Equipment" Upgrade as well. You do not need to buy the upgrades for the individual businesses you own. They will be independent of your Nightclub Warehouse and only need to be online (no supplies/production) to be used.
- "Security" Upgrade isn't necessary but can be bought to delay any Raids on your Nightclub business (which are very rare). Buy it if you have the cash to spare.
Step 3: Making Money with the Nightclub
The Nightclub essentially consists of 2 portions. The upper area is where you have DJs playing music and based on the popularity you make a certain amount of cash every in-game day. The lower area is where your technicians accrue goods in the basement, which can be sold at any time.
There are main two sources of income from your Nightclub:
1. Popularity
There is a purple bar at the bottom right indicating the current popularity whenever you are in your office. And your Nightclub produces income every day based on the current popularity level. This income can be collected from the hidden safe in your office room. Popularity can be increased in 2 ways:
a) Swapping DJs:
You can change your Resident DJ for a cost of $10,000 and receive an increase of 10% in popularity instantly.
If you have bought the Staff upgrade, your popularity drops by 5% every in-game day. So when it is at 90%, you can just change Resident DJ and get max popularity again.
Moreover, even at 95% popularity, you will still receive $50,000. So in a nutshell, you will make a $90,000 profit every 2 in-game days. Or $56,250/hour for almost no effort (As mentioned earlier, acquiring the DJs, for the first time includes a fee of 100k and a setup mission, but after that, it's just a press of a button).
Moreover, if you use the computer at any of the Basement Levels or the Master Control Terminal in your Arcade, then you will not get any cut scenes and the increase in popularity will be instant which is pretty handy if you want to save some time.
b) Promotion Missions:
You can start a promotion mission under the "Nightclub Management" Tab. Completing this mission will grant you a 25% increase in popularity and some petty cash ($1000 to $5000 depending on the time spent on a mission).
These are straightforward missions and can be completed from 3 to 10 minutes based on the type of mission and location.
2. Selling Warehouse Goods
Upon logging in to the Nightclub computer the home screen shows you the product level of each category in your warehouse. Under the "Warehouse Management" Tab, you will see 7 types of goods (if the corresponding Businesses are bought, set up, and are online) and 5 Technicians (if bought):
The following 7 Types of Goods are associated with the following businesses:
- Cargo and Shipments correspond to Hangar or Special Cargo Warehouse.
- Sporting Goods corresponds to Gunrunning Bunker.
- South American imports correspond to Cocaine Lockup.
- Pharmaceutical Research corresponds to Meth lab.
- Cash Creation corresponds to Counterfeit Cash Factory.
- Organic Produce corresponds to Weed Farm
- Printing and Copying correspond to Document Forgery Office.
And since there are only 5 technicians, for best profitability, you should assign them to the best 5 goods (the first 5 listed above). Below are the production numbers if interested:
When to sell Nightclub Stock?
You will notice that the 3 types of goods, Coke (South American imports), Meth (Pharmaceutical Research), and Cash (Cash Creation) cannot be accrued after 20 hours. At that point, you should sell your Nightclub stock. This can obviously change if you participate in Business Battles and/or sell special orders.
So you can make your technicians accrue the other types of goods based on your own better judgment. Upon making the sale, Tony will take 10% of your warehouse earnings (up to $100,000).
NOTE: This activity can ONLY be completed in a Public session.
Step 4: Nightclub Sell Missions
Arguably the hardest part of managing a Nightclub is selling the warehouse goods because these sell missions can only be conducted in a Public Session.
Even though there are methods to get a Solo Public session (for Xbox, the method is not trivial anymore), we will still list out tips to help players with earning the cash if they choose to do so.
Following are the tips for selling your Nightclub Warehouse in a Public Session:
1. Ghost Organization
VIPs and CEOs (not Motorcycle Club President) can use the Ghost Organization feature to hide all players of your Organization and the Sell Vehicle(s) being driven, from the other players on their map.
This ability only lasts for 3 minutes so only use it when you see any player coming towards you in a Jet or you see players using their own Ghost Org or they start going Off The Radar.
Off The Radar does not hide the Sell Vehicle you are in so players will still be able to see you on the map. BUT, it will prevent players from Auto Targeting you with the Orbital Cannon (Do not assume people won't use it just because it costs 750k).
You can use it by selecting Securoserv VIP/CEO > VIP/CEO Abilities > VIP/CEO Abilities > Ghost Organization.
2. Sell in small/free-aim/quieter sessions
Lesser the players, the lesser the chance of players coming after you. You can also change your "Targeting Mode" to Free Aim.
Another thing to look for is if you see a lot of players are inside properties in the session and/or not a lot of activity is going on in the session.
Obviously, this doesn't eliminate the possibility of your sell mission getting attacked by other players, but it reduces it a lot.
3. Upgrading Sell Vehicles
You can go to the Basement Storage of your Nightclub and modify your vehicles (whichever bought). I would recommend buying maximum armor and performance upgrades for all your vehicles.
We have a Vehicle Armor Guide with information on their armor stats. And we have tested all the armor plating options for the Speedo Custom as reference. Feel free to check them out.
NOTE: If you can avoid it then don't buy the "Remote Grenade Launcher" and "Remote Missile Battery" of Pounder Custom because there are certain bridges in the path of some sell missions that prevent this vehicle from passing through.
4. Close Application If Nightclub Goods Destroyed
If your Sell Vehicle is destroyed or is about to get destroyed, immediately close the application. You will lose only up to 10% of your Nightclub stock but it's better than losing all the stock.
Of course, this isn't the intended way to play the game, but Rockstar refuses to balance the PvP meta, and you are left with an Off The Radar Thermal Jet destroying your Nightclub goods with just 2 Explosive Cannon strafes in a matter of 10 seconds.
Even though the Nightclub Sell Vehicles cannot be locked onto (unlike Biker or Bunker), they are still vulnerable to Explosive damage, the most prominent being the Explosive Cannons because of how easy it is to get the splash damage on vehicles by simply spraying down the road.
5. Ambush Nightclub Mission Trick
This mission can actually be completed without actually going to the intended location. I have shown 2 samples of the mission in the video so feel free to check them out.
There are 3 such locations and sometimes hard to remember so feel free to play the mission as intended. Kill the undercover cops first and then call Lester to get rid of the wanted level.
6. Cargobob Lift Tip
Arguably the most annoying mission. Especially if you get this mission with a Pounder or Mule Custom.
Instead of moving forward, you should pull back to make sure you do not lose altitude.
Business Battles
Business Battles are free-mode events that spawn with a cooldown of 15 minutes whenever there are a certain (usually at least 3) number of players registered as CEO/VIP/MCP outside the structures. These are strictly PvP activities so play them at your own risk.
However, these missions can also spawn in Private sessions, so these can side little fun activities if you have friends to play with in Private Sessions.
Nightclub Raids
Extremely rare for Nightclubs, raids are still a part of Nightclubs. There are two types:
1. Popularity Raids:
Extremely rare but in case you do get them, it's pretty easy to complete. Failing the mission will only reduce its popularity.
2. Warehouse Raids:
If you have more than 20% Warehouse Stock (40% if Security Upgrade was bought) for more than 4 hours (8 hours if Security Upgrade was bought) then there is a chance to get this raid.
NOTE: These numbers have been provided by Rockstar support. If you fail this mission then you lose your warehouse stock. These raids can obviously be avoided by doing a promotion mission or a sell mission or just not registering as CEO/VIP/MCP outside the business.
Bugs & Glitches
The most common issue players see is where one or more of their technicians stop accruing goods for one or more of your businesses. And upon checking "sometimes" the option to select the goods is locked. And there is usually no way to actually prevent this issue.
These bugs can occur at any time and the only way to know this is by checking your computer. However, there are some solutions that I can share:
- If the option to accrue a product is locked then your corresponding business is shut down. Go to that business and Restart it. Now try again and see if it works. Wait for it to accrue 1 unit (depending on the type of business this can take 15 minutes to 2 hours).
- If the options aren't locked but goods are still not accruing, you can simply un-assign and re-assign the technician (or just swap with a different business).
- If the technician(s) is(are) still unable to accrue goods then go ahead and shut down your business and restart it again. See if closing the game also works before shutting down the business.
- If this still is an issue, contact Rockstar support and see if you can get any other solutions. Not trying to scare anyone but some people have had to change their nightclub locations just for accruals to start working.
Changing or Moving Nightclub
When you want to change or move your nightclub, you will have to pay the cost of the nightclub minus the 50% rebate value you get from your previous purchase. You will retain the purchase of garage floors, warehouse levels, and your technicians. Everything else needs to be bought again.
Video: Ultimate Nightclub Money Guide for GTA Online
We hope this Nightclub Money Guide for GTA Online was useful for your money-making adventures in the game. Feel free to provide feedback and ask any questions in the comments!
